PREFACE. — i 
s 
Nic the numerous useful and interesting objects of 
al history discovere on the vast extent of the New 
Continent, none claim our attention ín a higher degree - 
than the vegetable productions of North America. Her 
forests produce an endless variety of: useful and stately 
timber trees; her woods and hedges the most ornamen- 
tal flowering shrubs, so much admired in our pleasure 
grounds; and her fields and meadows a number of ex- 
.  eeedingly handsome and singular flowers (many of them 
i possessing valuable medicinal virtues), different ` from 
those of othe countries, All these are more or less capa- 
ble of being adapted to an European climate, and the 
greater part of easy cultivation and quick growth; 
which circumstances have given them, with much pro- 
priety, the first rank in ornamental gardening. 
À country so highly abundant in all the objects of my 
favourite pursuits, excited in me, at an early period of 
- life, a strong desire to visit it, and to observe in their 
natural soil and climate the plants which I then knew ; 
and to make such discoveries as circumstances might 
throw in my way. This plan I carried into execution 
in the year 1799; when I left Dresden, the place where. 
J had received my education, and embarked for Balti- 
